‘Diet Rehab: 28 Days to Finally Stop Craving the Foods That Make You Fat’

If you’ve ever tried to medicate away a bad mood with a handful of chocolates or a bag full of pretzels, you might have been onto something. According to Dr. Mike Dow, a cognitive behavioral therapist who specializes in eating disorders and addictions, foods such as pasta, white bread, doughnuts, bacon and potato chips flood our brains with feel-good brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. “Just as you can become dependent on a nicotine fix or a cocaine high, so can you grow to rely on the effects of high-carb or high-fat foods,” he writes. The solution, he says, is to “add healthier ‘booster’ foods — those that promote a sustainable and nonaddictive release of brain chemicals — along with booster activities to increase the chemicals that our brains crave.” Yoga, anyone? (Published by Avery)